Subterranean surveying is used to perform characterization of subterranean elements in a subterranean structure. Examples of subterranean elements of interest include hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs, fresh water aquifers, gas injection zones, and other subterranean elements.
One type of subterranean surveying is seismic surveying, in which seismic sources (e.g., air guns, vibrators, explosives, etc.), and seismic sensors (e.g., hydrophones, geophones, accelerometers, etc.) are deployed. The seismic sources are used to produce seismic waves that are propagated into the subterranean structure, with some of the seismic waves reflected from the subterranean elements of interest. The reflected seismic waves are detected by the seismic sensors.
Some seismic acquisition systems can include a relatively large number of seismic sensors. As a result, the number of independent data streams that have to be recorded can be large. Typically, each data stream from a corresponding to a seismic sensor is communicated over a respective individual data channel. An acquisition system that has a large number of data channels for communicating the data streams can be complicated. For example, an acquisition system that is capable of handling 50,000 channels or more will be more complicated than an acquisition system that only has to handle 5,000 or 10,000 channels.
As complexity of an acquisition system increases, the cost of such acquisition system can also increase, and the reliability can be reduced.